March 2, 2017 by DW

…to the midday, double feature, picture show by H N O… (apologies to Rocky Horror)

Clarence John Laughlin documentary double feature

Admission is free. Reservations: wrc@hnoc.org or (504) 523-4662

HNOC Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street

As part of its acclaimed exhibition about Louisiana photographer Clarence John Laughlin (1905–1985), The Historic New Orleans Collection will host a double-feature screening of two documentaries about the eccentric artist on Saturday, March 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The screenings include The Phantasmagorical Clarence John Laughlin (2015) by Gene Fredericks and Clarence John Laughlin: An Artist with a Camera (2009) by Michael Frierson and Michael Murphy. The filmmakers for both works will be present to answer questions and discuss their films at each screening.

More information.

February 19, 2017 by DW

Royal Mule Team

One of the trueisms about living in the Quarter ( and different from even the experiences of our “almost-residents” aka storekeepers or other business owners) is the scads of information that one gets from popping out on the sidewalk dozens or more times in one day, observing the activities or even while still back in your space, hearing them happen and perhaps noting the time in the back of your mind while you put laundry in the washer before any commerce is even beginning. Those activities include workers arriving at dawn and standing in front of your door soberly assessing current tip levels; delivery trucks huffing and puffing outside from 5:30 am on, pulling cases of items out (which ramps up especially in mid-week); knowing the tour guides who do their work with respect and gusto and those who do not; separating the good hustlers from the dangerous ones and much more. One other is learning the names and company of the sanitation crews and the identification of who actually works versus those who just walk and swipe at the ground once in a while. One of the good ones is Royal Carriages. In case you didn’t know, all of the carriage companies are supposed to take their turn in the Quarter, cleaning up after their mules; however most do not bother. The one company that is consistent and conscientious is Royal Carriages.

Recently, they had an open house at their stables in the Marigny where they invited the locals via social media to see what was up and offered some free food and drink and music. I went by and was impressed by the cleanliness and attention they paid to their space. So when I saw the cleaner out on the cart today and that he was stopped right in front of my door, I thanked him for his work and we had a short chat. His name is Roger and he is proud of his company and told me that the mules there get 4 months off per year and the place is kept “spotlessly”clean. He was as cheery of a worker as the modern world has and I am glad to have him around and to have a name to assign to his face.

The workers and residents of the Quarter acknowledge each other’s dependency on the other. We share a pride in our place and a willingness to play the hosts to the city’s millions of visitors. Royal Mule Carriages illustrates that truth.

January 8, 2017 by DW

Interview with editor of N.O Lit: 200 years of New Orleans Literature

Listen to The Anthology of Louisiana Literature‘s 2-part interview with Dr. Nancy Dixon, editor of one of the necessary books for any New Orleans scholar or armchair historian: N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature. Even if this brilliant woman wasn’t my pal, I’d still be urging you to get a copy. I open it up again and again to read her selections from different authors.

The 560 pages includes a well-curated set of short fiction and plays that reflect the city’s literary history, from Paul Louis LeBlanc de Villeneuve’s 18th-century play The Festival of the Young Corn, or The Heroism of Poucha-Houmma to Fatima Shaik’s 1987 short story “Climbing Monkey Hill.”

Dixon provides informative introductions to each author’s section, placing the works and their creators within the context of the city’s history and the history of its literature, making the anthology both an enjoyable artful artifact and an important academic resource.

Part 1

Part 2

September 16, 2016 by DW

Imagining the Creole City: The Rise of Literary Culture in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: Review

One relevant reason for this book is the recently reignited protests centering on race inequities and immigration across America, a conversation that is always sadly necessary in the American South. Local historian Rien Fertel addresses it by writing about the elite Creole literary circle that, starting in the 1820s/1830s, largely created and sustained the story of the region’s “exceptionalism.” That era of virtuous manifest destiny – not just in the South of course- is largely to blame for the lack of understanding among those who continue to grow up amid their own ethnic myths in the U.S.

For New Orleans, most people know the story of Creole culture only through Creoles of color who continue to inhabit the city, partly because they are largely responsible for much of what we continue to value culturally in New Orleans such as live music, public and family culture, and informal Carnival activities. But it is also convincingly identified here as resulting from the profiled writers unapologetic and sometimes incorrect assertion of their whiteness and its embedded privileges during Reconstruction through the turn of the 20th century. Yet the historical details contained here give those actions context and perspective; Fertel’s description of the politics of post-Louisiana Purchase New Orleans and the concern from the White House on any potential allegiance to the Old World as partially responsible for the Creoles’ sensitivity about the eclipse of their history is especially informative.

By offering individual profiles of prominent writers of Creole history starting with eminent historian Charles Gayarré, “Transcendentalist” New Orleans Choctaw missionary Adrien Rouquette and through those writers who took up the “cause” in the 20th century, including Grace King, Robert Tallant and Lyle Saxon, Fertel offers a human-scaled trek through that complicated history and time. Having the book end with the profile of George Washington Cable and his more inclusive history of the city, he shows the reordering of history that began with Cable as well as the tension among writers, which (partly) led to Cable’s self-imposed exile from the city. Fertel does his best to fairly catalogue both good and bad (or the long and the short) of that tension; for example, he shares how Grace King’s later-in-life acknowledgement of Cable’s value to the city showed the potential for change among those earlier devoted only to the “gallant” Creole story.

The details gathered by many of these writers will continue to offer us a rich tapestry of Louisiana life and cannot be entirely eclipsed by their love of heroic epics or even their insistence on racial “purity” and entitlement that belied the truth that existed in the tumultuous and complicated times of Jim Crow’s America. Yet, the dismissal of most of these writers works in the last 50 years as provincial cheerleading with either a stated or unstated allegiance to the “Lost Cause” should be a lesson in these Tea Party days and is vitally important for any writer in these times to consider.

View all my reviews

December 11, 2015 by DW

Confederate Stories

here’s my new conversation starter about the Confederate monuments around town. If you want to honor Civil War history, then (as befits the victors), for the Lee statue, insert Grant; for the J. Davis one, Lincoln; for PGT Beauregard, Gen. Lovell or Butler. In fact, the history that would be appropriate would be to only have the victor depicted with information about the war and the losers left to a plaque, and would then offer true Civil War history to the future generations…That is my argument; explaining the history of a failed insurrection (of which New Orleans was in for all of 16 months or so of its 300 year history) was not the point of those statues, but rather meant as a defiance of the order of the victors to integrate, and as a way to tell this new tall tale of the “Lost Cause.” The Davis statue, in particular is in that camp as it was put up in the 1900s (I hope no one is arguing for the Battle of Liberty Place Monument to remain). I believe anyone who argues for these to stay as they are is arguing for a false narrative of triumph and encouraging that long ago generation’s view of subjugation of their neighbors. Still, I’d like them to remain in the city, in an appropriate place with other symbols of previous times available to all to see and understand. History is not erased but with the removal of false idols, is also no longer appropriated and altered as it is presently.

When people scornfully use the argument that those who want this change want to deny history, I reply that it is those who argue for the losers of the war to be depicted who are the ones denying history. Yes, let’s absolutely depict the history of our horrific Civil War, but do it truthfully and with respect to ALL of our people and our (at times, shameful) history. If you truly want to have our history on display, then get actively involved in finding innovative and respectful ways to match the complicated details of it.

December 6, 2015 by DW

Tear that wall down

Here’s a link to a story about when highways are removed from inner cities:
http://gizmodo.com/6-freeway-demolitions-that-changed-their-cities-forever-1548314937

This is an issue at the forefront in New Orleans because of the ramps to the Claiborne Expressway built in the 1960s, need to be repaired soon. “An option that’s been tossed around for awhile is to remove the overpass, restore a former tree-lined boulevard there and let traffic run along it and surrounding streets.”

It may be important to remember both the spur that was never built:

And the expressway that was:

And what Claiborne used to look like:

As long as we’re on this story again, I am always surprised by how many freethinkers still trot out the erroneous story of how the win to not build the Riverfront spur in the Quarter in the 1960s led to the Claiborne Expressway. Simply not true.

In any case, it’s time to focus on the positive benefits of taking down the Claiborne Expressway and make sure that more negative developments are not put in its place.

October 8, 2015 by DW

Newcomb Pottery exhibit

Update for 2015: Still up as an exhibit; if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it heartily. And now you can have lunch afterwards at Petit Amelie right across the street, which is the most beautiful cafe in the Quarter.

(original 2012 post)
Over a sunny lunch hour, I dragged my 1970s Crescent folding bike out from behind the lawnmower (been raining a lot lately is my only excuse) and headed to the Quarter.
After a delightful lunch at Stanley’s-well except for the wait staff’s obsession with their new iPhones, although I think a very good idea to have them for taking orders. The real issue today was the less than stellar bar staff but I’m still loyal to this chef and his wife, so stayed for a cherry-limeade Italian soda and a bowl of their gumbo with potato salad dumped in and was glad I did.

Afterwards, I unlocked the Crescent and headed to Dumaine, between Chartres and Royal.
Madame John’s Legacy is said by some to be either the oldest or the second oldest building in the Quarter. Ursuline Convent is usually considered to be the oldest and since MJL burned in the first fire that swept through the Quarter and had to be rebuilt, I’m not sure why some fight for the oldest designation.
Okay, maybe its just wild talking mule carriage drivers that say that. I am also sure that the many expert historians could make a case for either if needed.

In any case, it has to be the plainest building in the Quarter.

I like that about it, but it must be hard for people to believe its a museum with its undecorated green front (historically accurate colors by the way) and its entrance at street level under the stairs. As locals know, the gingerbread and vibrant colors came with that nutty Victorian age. The name itself comes from a George Washington Cable story, a writer interestingly, who worked in part of the same time period as the Newcomb Pottery folks and was known for his sympathetic and sensitive portrayal of the complex culture found in New Orleans.
Once you get upstairs, a very courteous security officer at the desk gives a short overview of the fact that this exhibit is free (thanks to the Friends of the Cabildo, you’re very welcome) and that pictures are allowed.
I was the only person in there until the end when a couple of French men came in and went directly to the house descriptions rather than to the Newcomb exhibit. The exhibit is set up in 4 rooms, with one or two cases in each laid out in different periods. For those unfamiliar with Newcomb, pottery or even the name, it was a celebrated liberal arts women’s college at Tulane University. Until 2006 that is, and then scandalously to many Newcomb graduates, the management of Tulane ceased the operation of this endowed college and folded it and its endowment into the larger university. I can understand the argument that there may not be a need for a women’s college any longer but talk about kicking people when they’re down…
In any case Newcomb operated this pottery business for about 50 years really, from the late 1800s through the early 1940s. Its pottery became quite the collectors item for arts and crafts pottery enthusiasts and it is some of the loveliest work you’ll see. The detail is striking, especially since they often used local flora and fauna for their motifs.
The arts and crafts movement itself was an artistic response to the industrialization of America and also a way to allow women to work on their degree. Having grown up also in Ohio, I was already familiar with Rookwood Pottery, which was the most well known of the arts and crafts pottery-a friend in Cincinnati has Rookwood fireplace detail in her apartment, which is not that unusual to find there….
The Newcomb school allowed women to design and paint designs, but the actual pottery wheel was handled by men! ugh. I’m gonna leave that alone….

Interestingly, the most well known prolific potter at Newcomb, Joseph Meyer, was the son of a French Market vendor who sold utilitarian wares.
This modest exhibit is at the perfect venue and is well worth the trip to Dumaine.